The Kyiv Post's Paul Miazga describes the Eurovision ticket situation in almost the same words as Dan McMinn...

“Well, here I am now sitting with three airplane tickets and three hotel reservations and NO tickets."

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Unprofessional? Sadly but not surprisingly, yes. Strange? Not really. Embarrassing and shameful for Ukraine? Yes.

Eurovision, quite simply, is the biggest potential tourist windfall for Ukraine in history. Thousands of tourists and journalists will flock to Kyiv. Any fool can tell you the benefits of tourism: jobs, money, good PR, etc. The fact that Jan and many, many other non-Ukrainians might have no tickets before coming here, and might have to be subject to scalpers, is shameful. That the Eurovision organizers, especially those in control of ticket sales, did not ensure that tickets would be available to people living outside of Ukraine is ridiculous.

What damage will this do to Ukraine’s international image? Well, as any good marketer knows, if someone likes your product, they’ll tell 10 people, but if they don’t like it, they’ll tell 100. Let’s hope the country rallies on Eurovision, fast.